FILM REVIEW: Avengers Assemble

When the Asgardian god of mischief, Loki, returns to Earth with his very own brand of villainy, SHIELD works to unite several superheroes into one team, the Avengers, in order to put a stop to him bringing the world to its knees.

The Avengers (I'll call it this throughout the review as it sounds less like a vendetta against furniture instructions) has been a long time coming, building across five films to form a Marvel Universe the likes of which many comic book fans had only ever dreamed of seeing on screen. Though I'm relatively new to the full extent of the Marvel mythology, I've always grown up with the cartoons, the stories and the iconic characters. The Avengers was a bit of a fantasy; something that was a good idea and would be amazing to see on the big screen but that would probably never happen. It would just be too big. Then Iron Man happened. Ever since Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) showed up in the Iron Man post-credits sting talking about the Avengers Initiative, Marvel have been building towards this moment, a film that saw several superheroes, stars in their own right, come together to form Earth's Mightiest Heroes. After an expert marketing campaign that meant the (already considerable) hype had been ramped up to the maximum, The Avengers finally hit the big screen last week. And it's fantastic.


The plot centres around your friendly neighbourhood macguffin, the Tesseract, a Cosmic Cube of pure, self-generating energy that holds the key to a lot of things for a lot of people, last seen in Captain America: The First Avenger. SHIELD (i.e. Nick Fury and Clark Gregg's Agent Phil Coulson) are currently in possession of the Cube but with Loki (Tom Hiddleston) on the move, this isn't the case for very long. Soon, Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) are brought together to try and stop Loki from destroying Earth as we know it.

First things first, director and co-writer, Joss Whedon really did have a hell of a job on his hands. Being able to juggle seven main characters, four of whom with super-powers and all with their own baggage, a villain with more angst than the average episode of Dawson's Creek and a decent plot with good action sequences then making sure that all of this makes a good film is no easy task. Thankfully, the screenplay Whedon and fellow writer Zak Penn have put together manages all of these things and more. Despite having to contend with a huge cast of major characters, every single one gets a moment in the spotlight and the cast seize each chance with both hands. Although many people are claiming that the Hulk steals the show (he is brilliant), for me, it's Tom Hiddleston's Loki who really shines in this film. As with his appearance in Thor, Hiddleston manages to create a villain that is thoroughly evil, compelling and yet still a little sympathetic. His desire to rule essentially comes from a place of low self-esteem thanks to some serious daddy issues and Thor's explanation for this is one of my highlights of the film. 


That's not to say the other actors do badly, in fact, I'd go so far as to say there wasn't really a dud performance in the film. Thanks to some classic Whedonesque one liners, the interplay between the superheroes offers each one a chance in the spotlight. Whether you want to see Thor going ten rounds with Captain America, Tony Stark verbally sparring with Bruce Banner or the Black Widow taking on the Hulk, every scene between the heroes is great to watch. Naturally with a film of this magnitude, a couple of characters are going to get a little less attention and in this case, it was Cobie Smulders' Agent Maria Hill and Renner's Hawkeye. The script does give both of them a chance to shine in their respective roles but I didn't feel like they got the same amount of development devoted to the other characters. That being said, it never felt that they were included simply to be filler, both playing an integral part in the story as the eyes and ears of the operation. Whedon is used to handling big casts of big characters with his experience on ensemble shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly and the same skill is transferred here.


As always with a superhero film of this magnitude, the action scenes were going to have to be big and bold. Thankfully the action scenes are both necessary for the story and extremely well put-together. Not once did I lose track of what was happening or who was fighting who, a welcome feeling in an action film. Every scene was entirely organic to the developing narrative, never once feeling as if it was inserted just to kickstart the plot as the pacing was also well-handled. As with the interplay between all the characters, the fight scenes between the various heroes were every bit as thrilling as they should have been. The Chitauri, the alien race employed by Loki to take over the Earth, didn't exactly live up to the fearsome reputation that had been talked up earlier in the film. As they practically had 'canon fodder' stamped on their grisly foreheads, it makes enough sense that they could be dispatched without great difficulty but they could have a little more threatening. That's a very minor criticism though as these action sequences were really all about seeing the Avengers throw down. Even with the slightly dodgy foe, the final action sequence barely let you stop for breath with all the heroes pulling their weight in one of the most epic battles in recent history. It's a testament to both the writers and the cast that these action scenes actually further both plot and character development rather than merely being mindless violence for a few minutes at a time.


The Avengers always had the potential to be something revolutionary, a film that finally realised the full grandeur that the Marvel Universe had to offer but then it could also have been a complete flop. Thankfully in the hands of Joss Whedon and a truly committed cast, it's the former, a rollercoaster ride of action, comedy and spectacle from start to finish. It took all my strength to not clap and cheer loudly at several moments during the film and, for me, that's a sign of a truly great superhero film.




*****


- Becky